Community Area 8, 1 mile N of the Loop. The
Chicago River
and
Lake Michigan
form three edges of the Near North Side. The different uses that Chicagoans made of these bodies of
water
divided the Near North into an expensive residential strip in the east and an industrial, low-income area in the west. A residential and commercial corridor grew up around Clark Street, serving as a buffer between the two.

When, in the 1830s, New Yorker William B. Ogden saw the property that his family had bought on the Near North Side of the Chicago River, he was appalled by the swampy condition of the land. Nevertheless, rapidly increasing
real-estate
values and the possibility of industrial development along the river induced him to buy up large tracts of land there. He gave the Chicago Dock and Canal Company control of the land where in the twentieth century the Chicago North Pier was built. Ogden increased the amount of
waterfront,
manufacturing land by having a canal dug across a bend in the North Branch of the river, creating
Goose Island.
Residential patterns followed industrial use. Although
Irish
factory workers settled at the juncture of the river and its North Branch, an area called Kilgubbin or the Patch, Ogden's decision to bring the city's first
railroad
there in 1848 drove them northward along the river. Communities of
German
and
Swedish
farmers and merchants occupied the interior of the Near North Side. Finally, members of the McCormick family established an island of wealth when they built homes in the eastern quarter of the area, near to their Reaper Works located between Pine and Sand Streets, just north of the river.

Baseball in Seward Park, 1909

In the 1850s, Chicagoans began to recognize the appeal of lakefront land. The sandy mouth of the river was not yet suitable for permanent building, but became the site of an aptly named
vice district,
the Sands. Ogden and other landowners took exception to its occupation by squatters and in 1857 persuaded Mayor John Wentworth to remove them.

The
Fire of 1871
did not alter existing
land use,
despite destroying most of the structures on the Near North Side. Rather, it was Potter and Bertha Palmer's decision to build their mansion along the future site of Lake Shore Drive that began a century-long process in which the rich took over increasing portions of the Near North Side. Fashionable Chicagoans moved from
Prairie Avenue
and built mansions facing the lake, spreading out along Astor Street. The enterprising George Streeter claimed that the accumulating sand around his beached boat was outside the legal limits of Illinois, so he could govern it. Although he ultimately lost his case, that section remains
Streeterville.
The western district, meanwhile, was growing poorer and more disreputable. The increasing
industrial pollution
earned it the nickname “Smokey Hollow.” In the 1880s a colony of Sicilians joined the Irish there. The area had a reputation for crime, and city
police
so feared “Death Corner” that they refused to investigate numerous murders there.

Ogden Slip, 1968

The 1920 opening of the Michigan Avenue
Bridge,
inspired by the
Burnham Plan
of 1909, secured the eastern sector of the Near North Side for the rich. The monumental bridge fostered a luxury
shopping district
on North Michigan Avenue. Investors built high-rise
apartment
buildings and sumptuous
hotels.
The central portion of the Near North Side became a district of rooming houses, segregating the elite from the concentrated poverty in the west.

The years after the
Great Depression
saw shifts in the balance between wealth and poverty on the Near North Side. City officials tried to erode the western slum by replacing part of it with the Frances Cabrini Homes. By 1982, the high-rise Cabrini Extension and William Green Homes constituted a new neighborhood—
Cabrini-Green.
Deterioration spread eastward, however, and the promise of public housing in Chicago was not fulfilled.

In the 1950s, the city turned to
urban renewal.
It cleared and sold the central strip between Clark and LaSalle Streets to developer Arthur Rubloff for
Sandburg Village.
Rubloff also spearheaded the revitalization of North Michigan Avenue under the banner of “The
Magnificent Mile.
” The success of these developments spurred the erection of more high-rise apartments and new investment in the Near North Side. In the 1980s, the River North area became a center for art
galleries.
The Chicago Dock and Canal Trust, still controlled by William Ogden's descendants, made riverfront property available for new residential and commercial use with the Cityfront Center development. They redesigned old warehouses into a shopping mall called North Pier and built new skyscrapers. By the mid-1990s, expensive land encircled Cabrini-Green, but its residents were poor people determined to stay in their neighborhood. Mayor Richard M. Daley and other planners called for the demolition of part of the complex and its replacement with mixed-income housing.

Near North Side (CA 8)

Year

Total
(and by category)

Foreign Born

Native with foreign parentage

Males per 100 females

1930

79,554

26.4%

31.5%

114

74,410

White (93.5%)

4,321

Negro (5.4%)

823

Other (1.0%)

1960

75,509

7.7%

12.6%

101

50,569

White (67.0%)

23,114

Negro (30.6%)

1,826

Other races (2.4%)

1990

62,842

8.9%

—

86

45,972

White (73.2%)

14,530

Black (23.1%)

52

American Indian (0.1%)

1,765

Asian/Pacific Islander (2.8%)

523

Other race (0.8%)

1,856

Hispanic Origin* (3.0%)

2000

72,811

13.4%

—

87

52,186

White alone (71.7%)

14,023

Black or African American alone (19.3%)

92

American Indian and Alaska Native alone (0.1%)

4,457

Asian alone (6.1%)

47

Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone (0.1%)

773

Some other race alone (1.1%)

1,233

Two or more races (1.7%)

2,805

Hispanic or Latino* (3.9%)

Amanda Seligman

Bibliography

Berger, Miles L.
They Built Chicago: Entrepreneurs Who Shaped a Great City's Architecture.
1992.